The Best Place To Find A Great Deal On Power Amplifiers

By Mike Heller


If you have paid a good amount of cash on a pair of good-quality loudspeakers, you wish to be certain that you get an amplifier which will offer outstanding audio quality while meeting your budget. I will offer a few tips about audio amplifier products to assist you make the best purchasing decision. Audio amplifiers come in all different shapes and sizes. They employ different technologies and have many technical specs. However, you don't need to be a guru to choose the right model. By following some essential rules you won't regret your purchasing decision.

Amplifiers differ in their size and range from models that will take up a good portion of your living room whilst a number of of the newest mini amplifier models are as small as a deck of cards. Many models will be the size of a ordinary audio rack so that you can simply stack it on top of your audio equipment.

One important parameter is the size of the amplifier. You can buy models that can fill half a room. In contrast, some of the most recent miniature amplifier models are no larger than a deck of cards. A lot of units will be the size of a standard audio rack so that you can simply stack it on top of your audio equipment. There are some core amplifier technologies available. One technology is known as "solid-state". Solid-state amplifiers now account for the greater part of audio amplifiers. In the past, tube amps have been popular. Even today tube amplifiers are still obtainable. Though, tube amps have relatively high audio distortion. Audio distortion refers to how much the audio signal is being degraded while passing through the amplifier and is given in percent. This value is often used when comparing the audio quality of amplifiers.

An audio distortion of up to 10% is characteristic for tube amplifiers whereas solid-state amps have lower audio distortion depending on the particular technology. Some of the most popular technologies in the past have been "Class-A" and "Class-AB" technologies. These technologies use different arrangements to amplify the audio. Amplifiers based on any of these technologies are also known as "analog amplifiers". This technology offers fairly small audio distortion. On the other hand, the power efficiency is only 10 to 30%. Power efficiency refers to how much of the electrical power is really utilized to amplify the signal. The remaining portion is wasted as heat. An amplifier with low power efficiency will radiate the majority of its power as heat.

Harmonic distortion of tube amps is frequently as large as 10%. Solid-state amplifiers will have lower audio distortion. However, distortion will depend on the particular audio amplifier technology. The most traditional amps employ a "Class-A" and "Class-AB" technology. These amps are also named "analog amplifiers". This technology provides fairly small audio distortion. On the other hand, the power efficiency is merely 10 to 30%. Power efficiency refers to how much of the electrical power is actually used to amplify the signal. The left over portion is wasted as heat. An amplifier with low power efficiency will radiate the majority of its power as heat.

Your amplifier should deliver sufficient power to drive your loudspeakers. The amount of power will depend on the power handling rating of your loudspeakers. An additional factor is the size of your room. Speaker power handling is given as peak power which describes the utmost amount of power during short bursts whilst average power refers to how much power the loudspeakers can handle continuously.

If your listening area is relatively small then you might not require to drive your speaker to its rated power handling value. You would almost certainly be good getting an amp that can provide 20 to 50 Watts although your speakers may be capable to tolerate 100 Watts of power. Low-impedance loudspeakers usually offer high sensitivity and are easier to drive to high volume than high-impedance speakers. Check your amplifier manual to make certain that your amp can drive your speaker impedance.

Last but not least, make sure that your amp introduces little noise and has a broad enough frequency response. High-quality amplifiers will have a signal-to-noise ratio of at the very least 100 dB and a frequency response of at least 20 Hz to 20 kHz.




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